Navy News
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Hitler’s ‘gift’ to Dartmouth lovingly restored
12 February 2025
The SC250 bomb – 250 its weight in kilogrammes, half of it explosive – was dropped during a raid on the town and college in February 1943.
It landed in what today is the college’s D Block (the building extension at the rear of the main college which serves as accommodation for Officer Cadets), coming to rest in the fireplace of what was the masters’ common room during the war.
The impact should have caused the bomb – mainstay of the Luftwaffe’s war effort – to detonate… but it didn’t.
It was one of three dropped on Dartmouth during the raid; two fell in the town, demolishing properties in Duke Street.
The BRNC dud was rendered safe, the lifeless bomb became a memorial/monument, standing on a plinth outside what was the headmaster’s house, today Ashford House, home to the Royal Navy Leadership Academy (West), with a plaque added: A gift from Adolf Hitler, 13th February 1943.
Eight decades’ exposure to the Devonshire elements left it looking a bit rough, Lt John Connor on the BRNC staff and restorer/wheelwright/coachbuilder Greg Roland set to work refurbishing the ordnance as well as five vintage cannons.
Returned to pristine state, the bomb has been installed with the cannon in the shadow of the main mast in front of the college, overlooking the parade ground and Dart.